Welcome to the International Kiteboarding Association

Our Vision

To grow, evolve and promote the sport of kiteboarding across the globe and across all disciplines.

For more information please also visit our topic specific websites:

Formula Kite

The Formula Kite class is a high performance hydrofoiling class using regulated series registered production equipment freely available.

For Regional Games and a possible inclusion in the Olympic Games, one hydrofoil model and one kite model will be selected for a plain level playing field and to avoid an arms race.

KiteFoil GoldCup

The KiteFoil class is a full development class with minimal equipment limitation, allowing brands to test the latest equipment on the market.

The GoldCup tour is the sports premium event series with events all around the world and a strong focus on media production and prize money level.

Slalom

Slalom on TT:R (TwinTip boards) has been selected as the discipline and equipment for the Youth Olympic Games 2018 in Buenos Aires.

The focus of this high-octane discipline is on equipment handling and technique and includes reaching starts, reaching courses, and obstacels to jump.

Expression

The Expression Disciplines currently include Freestyle, Big Air, Wave Riding, Strapless Freestyle and Park. Competition is judged on difficulty and execution rather than "first past the post".

World Sailing, IKA and GKA have agreed to share the responsibilities for the Expression Disciplines with the Open World Titles awarded through professional tours.

Youth Olympics

Kiteboarding has been included in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games with a boardercross event on IKA TwinTip:Racing equipment, for boys and girls born between 2000 and 2003.

Have a look here to learn more about equipment limitations, formats and qualification opportunities.

Olympic and Regional Games

The IKA continues to campaign for an inclusion of kiteboarding in the 2020 Tokyo Games and several Regional Games on One Design Kitefoiling Equipment.

The Formula Kite class is the only afforadable solution for emerging and developing nations to compete in high performance classes and ticks all boxes of the IOC requirements, especially for youth and media appeal.

There has been a lot of discussion about the future of the wave discipline and especially about the coveted world title.

To give the discipline a new drive it has been decided that the world championship title will be awarded to the leader of the IKA wave world ranking at the end of the year, subject to conditions laid out below.

The world ranking will comprise events by KSP, PKRA and independent event organizers compying with said conditions. To ensure a consistent quality of event delivery, promotion and judging, IKA will play a bigger role on any future wave world cup, appoint contest director and head judge and supervise event delivery.

We believe that going this step is in the best interest of you, the riders, to prove yourself on the water sooner and more often while maintaining the quality aspects developed over the past few years.

Here are the conditions for the future wave world ranking and titles:

any wave event counts towards the world ranking according to the standard point system (based on prize money)

any organizer can apply to hold wave world cup events in compliance with the minimum criteria below

the leader of the world ranking at the end of the year is the world champion, provided that a minimum of 3 wave world cup events have been held throughout the year

Criteria for a wave world cup event supervised by IKA

event run in accordance with IKA championship rules

minimum holding period: 5 scheduled competition days

minimum prize money: 10000 EUR/USD

Contest Director appointed by IKA

Head judge appointed by IKA

Judging panel of 5 qualified wave judges

majority of judging panel shall hold ISA/ASP license or shall be directly appointed by IKA

minimum 10 minutes heats in the main event

participants selected solely by IKA wave world ranking as of close of registration (local wildcards, e.g. 2 for men, 1 for women, may be awarded)

the qualification system, local qualifiers, wildcard application process etc shall be stated in the NoR (to be approved by IKA)

We encourage PKRA, KSP and any independent event organizer to get in touch with us to bring more wave events to the calender.